After school Mio and Eizan are standing at the station waiting for the train. Mio is staring at her phone. “Are you nervous?”

“Kind of.”

“I never asked is it your first time going to Kyoto?”

“No, I have visited with my parents a few times.”

“It should take us a little over two hours to get there.”

“I’m surprised you wanted to take the train when your mother offered to pick you up.”

Eizan’s face immediately went pale. “Never take that offer, if you value your life.”

Mio tilted her head in confusion. “Is your mother a bad driver?”

Eizan laughed coldly “I’m surprised I made it to adulthood.”

Mio giggled “It can’t be that bad.”

Eizan put two hands on her shoulders and got a serious look on his face. “Promise me, unless it’s absolutely necessary, never get in a car with that woman.”

Mio nodded “I promise.”

Over a loud speaker “Nagoya to Kyoto train is now arriving.”

The sound of the train track and the gently swaying car had lulled her to sleep. She was leaning against his shoulder. He was staring at the cute girl next to him. “She's really cute when she’s sleeping. He was staring at the glasses on her face. I might have a thing for brunettes with glasses. I never really thought about it before.” His thoughts wondered back to all the times he saw her adjust the glasses on her face and his heart started to race. “Yup, I’m a pervert.” He giggled to himself.

He was staring at the scenery slowly passing by. “This is the first time I’ve been home in over a year.” Images of a beautiful blonde girl appeared in his head. “I wonder if Minami is doing better?” He shook his head. “Why would I even care? I’ve got Mio now. My life in Nagoya is great. There’s no reason to worry about the past. I’ll probably never see her again.” He sighed. “That would be sad in its own way. We were such close friends. It’s not like I hate her or anything like that. I understand why she sided with her boyfriend at the time. She probably thought I was jealous.” He thought back to all the guys he used to play soccer with that were his friends. Friends turned enemies. “I used to get angry when I thought about those people. I used to seethe with anger. But now…” He looked down at the beautiful girl leaning on his shoulder and smiled. “Maybe, it wasn’t such a bad thing.”

He gently rubbed the top of her head “It’s time to wake up.” She slowly opened her eyes and smiled. She sat up and rubbed her eyes and readjusted her glasses on her face. Eizan smiled as he felt his pulse quicken. “Yup, I really am a pervert. Of all the weird things to be attracted too, why that?”

Mio tilted her head in confusion “Is something wrong?”

Eizan sat up straight “Y-yeah everything’s fine.”

She looked at him suspiciously.

A few minutes later they exited the train. Eizan was staring in disbelief at the sight in front of him. “Mom, why are you here?”

His mom smiled brightly “We came to pick you up.”

Eizan looked down at the little black-haired girl standing next to her and smiled. “Elise how have you been.”

She frowned “I would be better if my brother called every once in a while.”

Eizan scratched his cheek “I’ve been busy.”

Elise smiled coldly and looked over at Mio. “I can see that.”

Eizan sighed “Let me introduce you to my girlfriend Sakurai Mio. Mio this is my sister Elise.”

Mio was staring at the absolutely adorable looking girl standing next to Mary. She bowed slightly. “Nice to meet you, Elise.”

Elise’s eyes narrowed “Nice to meet you too.” Elise ran up and gave her brother a big hug. “Big brother I missed you.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

He patted her on the head. “I missed you too. You’ve grown quite a lot since I left.”

Mary clapped her hands together. “Now that introductions are out of the way. Let’s get going.”

Eizan stiffened up. “Did you drive here?”

Mary smiled brightly “Of course. What kind of mother would I be if I made you two drag all your luggage to the house.”

Eizan sighed “It’s ok, we will walk.”

Mary got a scary look on her face. “You will not.”

Eizan thought “Damnit.” Mio looked over at him worriedly.

Twenty minutes later they arrived in front of Eizan’s parents estate. Mio was sitting there with a pale look on her face. Eizan looked over at her empathetically “Don’t worry we made it.”

Mio looked up at the large iron gate in front of the car. She looked around noticing the tall brick wall that it was attached too. “Is this where you grew up?”

Eizan shook his head “No, we only moved here three years ago after my grandmother passed. This is my father’s family estate. It has been in the family for generations.”

As they pulled through the gates Mio was surprised to see traditional Japanese style architecture on the large house in front of her. She thought to herself “His house reminds me of Ren’s. His father’s family must have been quite wealthy in the past.”

Eizan could see the surprise on her face. “Did you picture something else?”

She nodded. “For some reason I pictured you living in a modern house.”

“We used to live a few blocks from here in a small home. I could take you to see it if you’d like.”

Eizan’s led her inside and started to walk towards his room. His mom stopped him. “Where are you going?”

“Um… to my room.”

“We converted your room into my study. You two will have to use the guest room.”

Eizan looked surprised “What? When did you do that?”

Mary smiled coldly “Six months ago, after I realized you definitely weren’t coming back.” Mary had been devastated when Eizan left. She would cry every night for months. She steeled her heart after realizing her son wouldn’t be coming home. She still slightly resented him for leaving. She had done everything to keep her baby from leaving. But eventually, she was forced to relent. “It’s not like you were ever moving back.” He could feel the icy tone in her voice.

“Sorry mom.”

“It’s all in the past now.”

Eizan sighed and looked over at Mio who had a worried look on her face. “Follow me.” Eizan nodded and led her down a long hallway to the guest room.

When they arrived, she looked around the room. “There’s only one bed in here.”

Eizan smiled. “It’s ok, I’ll get a futon out later and sleep on the floor.”

Mio looked over at him worriedly. “Is your mother upset about the fact that you moved.”

“Yeah, she tried her hardest to get me to stay. I had never seen my mother cry until the day I left. My sister told me she cried everyday for a while. I think I might have broken her heart when I left. She was always so kind to me growing up and we spent a lot of time together. If my father hadn’t intervened, I probably would have never been allowed to leave. My uncle set me up with a job to help cover the costs and my father helped me find an apartment. I didn’t tell her I was leaving until the day I moved. She was furious at my father for helping me. I did something horrible to her and I don’t think she’s forgiven me yet. But I couldn’t stay here any longer.” An image of his mother collapsed on her knees as his cab left towards the train station entered his mind. She kept pleading with him not to leave even as the cab left. His dad had to hold her back as he tried to go. Eizan knew he was one of the few people his mother could talk to without holding back. Unlike him who didn’t really need to have deep debates about complex topics. His mother needed someone who she could have highly intellectual conversations with. She would still call him quiet frequently but it just wasn’t the same as in person.

He was slowly unpacking his things as he spoke. Mio came up and gave him a hug. “I’m sure she will forgive you eventually.”

He patted her on the head. “I think she has already mostly forgiven me for leaving. But I’m sure me coming home dredged up some old feelings. I didn’t think they had removed everything from my room, though.” He paused and thought for a few seconds “I wonder what they did with all of my old stuff?” He laughed a little. “I guess it doesn’t really matter.”

They unpacked their belongings and then headed towards the kitchen. Elise was standing there making tea. She looked over at Eizan and Mio holding hands. “You two are sure close.”

Eizan smiled “I would like to think so.”

She looked over at Mio “Are you going to be my sister-in-law?”

Mio smiled “At this moment were still discussing it.”

Elise smiled coldly and turned back towards what she was doing.

Mio whispered to Eizan “Does she hate me?”

Eizan whispered back “She has a little bit of a brother complex. She used to treat Minami the same way.” Mio’s expression changed. “Is something wrong?”

She shook her head. “No, everything is fine.”

She was thinking to herself “He says they never had that type of relationship, but I wonder. Did he ever have feeling for her?”

Eizan led her around the estate. At the end of the house tour, he led her to the large Japanese garden in the back. She was looking around mesmerized by the tranquil garden. She pointed towards a large building on the backside of the garden. “What’s that?”

“That’s my family’s dojo. My father and I would train there frequently when I was growing up.”

She was lost in thought for a few seconds.

“Would you like to take a look?”

“Can I?”

“I don’t see why not.”